Biscuit is one of the most popular bakery products and also a popular snack food among all cross sections of population. It is estimated that in India biscuit market is growing at a rate of 10% per year. About 1.2 million metric tons of biscuits are manufactured by both the organized and unorganized sectors in India with an annual turnover of more than 2000 crores (Sharma, H. K., Singh, S. T. M., and Goyal, P. 1998. Bakery Products in Next Millennium. Beverage & Food World, November-December pp 40, 46). Among the processed ready-to-eat convenient products, biscuit has several advantages such as long shelf life, easy availability in different tastes, flavour and texture and hence preferred by all cross section of population.
Soft-dough or gluco-type biscuits contain a reasonably high amount of both fat and sugar in their formulation. As a food component, fat contributes key sensory and physiological benefits. Fat contributes to flavor, or the combined perception of mouthfeel, taste, aroma and odour (Casimir C.Akoh. 1998. Fat replacers. Food Technology. 52(3): 47-53). Fat also contributes to creaminess, appearance, palatability, texture, and lubricity of bakery goods. Fat is also the most concentrated source of energy in the diet, providing 9 kcal/g compared to 4 kcal/g for proteins and carbohydrates.
High intake of fat is associated with increased risk for obesity and cancer. Intake of saturated fat is associated with high blood cholesterol and coronary heart disease (D. K. Sandrou and I. S. Arvanitoyannis. 2000. Low-Fat/Calorie Foods: Current State and Perspectives. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 40(5):427-447).
Along with fat, sugar controls the palatability of biscuits. The most commonly used sugar in the biscuit formulation is sucrose. Sugar imparts sweet taste to the biscuits. Sugar provides bulk, participates in browning reaction, and affects spread, crispness and surface characteristics of biscuits. Along with fat sugar imparts aeration to the product. Consumers sometimes require products low sugar to control body weight and health problems such as diabetes and hypoglycemia (D. K. Sandrou and I. S. Arvanitoyannis. 2000. Low-Fat/Calorie Foods: Current State and Perspectives. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. 40(5):427-447).
Awareness of adverse effects of excessive dietary fat intake is virtually universal. Consequently, health conscious individuals are modifying their dietary habits and eating less fat (G. D. Miller and S. M. Groziak. 1996. Impact of fat substitutes on fat intake. Lipids. 31 (S):273-277). Consumer acceptance of any food product depends upon taste which is the most important sensory attribute. Although consumers want foods with minimal to no fat or calories, they also want the foods to taste good.
Nearly 50-55% of the total biscuits produced in India belong to the sweet ‘gluco-type’ biscuits manufactured from soft dough. Commonly soft dough biscuits have a fat content around 20-25% and sugar content of 25-30%.
Reference may be made to E. L. Zimmerman, J. M. Carey, L. Slade and H. Levine (U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,404) wherein tenderized baked good production with reduced fat, no fat, or no added fat is prepared. The drawback is the products have tender or soft texture which is not desirable in a biscuit.
Reference may be made to L. M. Bullock, A. P. Handel, S. Segall, and P. A. Wasseramn, 1992, Food Technology, 46 (1): 82, 84, 86, wherein cookies containing no added simple sugars were developed. The drawback is the use of ‘acesulfame-k’, a high intensity non-nutritive sweetener, use of which might not be allowed in bakery products in several parts of the world, including India.
Reference may be made to Emmanuel I. Zoulias, Spyros Piknis and Vassiliki Oreopoulou, 2000, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 80:2049-2056 wherein cookies were produced using polydextrose to replace 35% of formula fat and formula sugar was replaced with polyols and acesulfame-k. The drawback is the use of acesulfame-k, an artificial sweetener, use of which might not be allowed in bakery products in many countries in the world, including India.
Reference may be made to Ruthann B. Swanson, Lou Ann Carden and Sheryul S. Parks, 1999, Journal of Food Quality, 22 (1): 19-29 wherein reduced-fat peanut butter cookies were made using ‘oatrim’—a commercially available fat-replacer and emulsifiers. The drawback is that addition of ‘oatrim’ decreased the optimum hardness and brittleness of cookies.
Reference may be made to L. A. Campbell, S. M. Ketelsen, and R. N. Antennucci, 1994, Food Technology, 47:98 102-105 wherein oatmeal cookies were prepared using certain calorie-sparing ingredients. The drawback is the use of whole eggs which might not be suitable for all stratum of population.
Reference may be made to M. Adair, S. Knight and G. Gates, 2001, Journal of the American Dietetics Association, 101 (4): 467-469 wherein peanut butter cookies were made using mungbean paste as a fat substitute. The drawbacks were incorporation of mungbean paste which reduced cookie spread and adversely affected the acceptability of the product.
Reference may be made to O. Charlton and M. K. Sawyer-Morse, 1996, Journal of the American Dietetics Association, 96(12) 1288-1290, wherein chocolate chip cookies were made reducing their fat content. The drawback was that the fat in cookie formulation was replaced with three commercially available fat-substitute preparations and these cookies gave lower sensory scores than control cookies.